Pay Careful Attention to How You Walk
First B Jackson
2026-05-24

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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You can have a seat? Good morning, everybody. Man, what a great start to to this morning with a baptism. If you haven't been baptized, we can schedule it out or we can have a baptism every Sunday, right? Wouldn't that be awesome?

Yes. Alright. Josh is pulling up the slides. We're going be in Ephesians five. We're going to be continuing on where we've been in Ephesians for, I don't know, many weeks and it's so good.

I I was talking to Ray earlier this week and every every week, he's so excited about. He's just like, the text is just, it's so good and I'm like, it is so good and I get to again, I I got to hang out in Ephesians three where Paul is praying for us and this text is more application. So, we've seen in the beginning where we are hearing from Paul about who God is and who we are in Christ and the amazing benefit that we have in Christ and now in in these later chapters is really application heavy and hey, because you're in Christ, act this way, do this, do that, and so if you if you don't have the context of the beginning of Ephesians, it sounds like really legalistic, you know, but it's not. So, we can't read through it all because I have way too much that I've planned to talk about. So, we will just start off It's not working.

Oh, you did it for me. Thank you. Alright. So, the context verse eight talks about walking as children of light. We're we were once in the darkness but as the follower of Christ, we are children of light and so there's this the the picture that's not my picture.

I've put a little website there if you want to, you know, check it out but we can partner with darkness. That's what we just were talking about. That remember that slide from from last week, all those things and some, we all struggle with some of those. At least one of those, right? We can partner with those things, partner with darkness, or we can partner with the light.

So, we have this opportunity to understand whose we are in Christ and let that impact how we live our life And then the last awake, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Do want me to just pretend like I have the clicker? Like, I'm ready for the next one. Thank you. Alright.

So, we don't always do this but we already did something this morning that's not normal with the so I invite you to stand in reverence of the reading of God's word. So, Ephesians five fifteen, pay careful attention then to how you walk, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time because the days are evil. So don't be foolish but understand what the Lord's will is and don't get drunk with wine which leads to reckless living but be filled by the spirit speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing, and making music with your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for everything to God the father. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. This is the word of the Lord.

You may be seated. Thank you. Alright. So, this whole paragraph is from this first sentence and which points back to where we're at last week. Pay careful attention then or therefore, pay careful attention to how you walk, how you walk.

And so today, we're going to be talking about because we follow Christ, because we are now children of light and not darkness, pay careful attention, slow down, think, have caution in how you walk. And you could say don't waste your life. That's kind of what came to my mind. There's three like positive, negative commands or it's actually negative and then the positive, but I added a fourth one in there. Walk diligently is kind of a sub point of walk wisely.

So this is kind of where we're headed today. The first one is not as unwise people, but as wise. So walk wisely. Walk wisely. That's in Chamonix.

I just threw it in there because I'm thinking there there is a climber that I'd met who was using this really old soft gear one day, not on this trip, but he was like, man, I've been doing this for thirty years using old stuff. And I was like, well, you might have been doing that for thirty years the wrong way. You know, like, I hate to tell you, but but there's wisdom and when you're when you're climbing or walking or or whatever and it and you don't just stumble into it. Like, I'm starting to get some gray hairs, but I'm not wise. I'm not I could be like, the amount of gray hair I have could could help me understand, you know, how much experience I have, but not how much biblical wisdom I have.

Right? Like, Timothy was a a younger guy, but I bet he was wiser than than me even if he was younger. So just a little a little bit on wisdom. There could be a whole sermon on wisdom and stuff and and some other things too and so I I'm not doing the doing it justice. We could we could hang out here for a long time but each each of these points, I kind of give an antonym.

So, unwise, it's an obvious antonym. Foolish, worldly wisdom, worldly wisdom would be an antonym to biblical wisdom. When when my wife and I went overseas, worldly wisdom said that's crazy. Like, you're wrecking your career. You're, you know, selling all your stuff.

The Andersons are moving into a camper. They're leaving their home. They're leaving family behind, which is an amazing opportunity for them to be near their family. They're dying to things of the world to go pursue what God has for them, to be a part of kingdom advancement in Alaska. Right?

The world would say, you're crazy. Like, you're going to go live and you're putting your family in this little camper or whatever. I don't know. Some people of the world probably think it's cool but alright, in inverted priorities and blindness, reckless living, those are all antonyms to walking in wisdom. But the good news is in James.

James is really encouraging. He says that we can pray for wisdom. If any of you lacks wisdom, ask God and it will be given to you. That's a promise for us and then in earlier in chapter one, here in Ephesians, Paul says, he prays for us to be given the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. So, our our former walk and this kind of goes back to the we can partner with darkness or we can partner with light.

Our former walk was according to the ways of the world. But now, as followers of Christ, we're a new creation and we walk differently now. Our wisdom is impacted by that. In our culture today, I I find myself often saying, oh, I feel like going and doing this, or I feel like going to take this job or whatever. Like, I feel like this.

Y'all hear that all the time. Right? Like, our that's what we that's our language. Sometimes it really means you're I feel hungry, so I'm gonna go eat. Sometimes it it's I feel like this, but you're actually talking about how you think and process, but I think our culture today and I know and I'm in this camp, we will let our emotion and our desire make these decisions without taking the time to think, what does scripture say?

How can I be wise in this choice? If I if I struggle when I'm alone with a screen, how can I be wise and not put myself in a situation like that or or whatever the struggle is? I was talking to somebody this morning that had that struggle. Jeremiah seventeen nine says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it?

So don't depend on that, right? Here's a few verses on wisdom. We don't we're not going to cover all of them, but one is the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and we're going to circle back to fear of the Lord at the end. The fear of the Lord is wisdom and to turn away from evil is understanding. In James, wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy.

There's a lot there that we're not going to get into. So walk wisely. The next one is walk diligently. Like I said, it's kind of a sub point in in the text. So we walk.

We pay careful attention then to how you walk, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time because the days are evil. This part to me, this is specifically the wisdom that he's talking about. You know, there's all kinds of categories of biblical wisdom, but being diligently, oh, that looks horrible. What happened? Okay.

There it is. There's my ugly slide. We I've had some issues with the slides. Ray was helping me out, but I don't know what happened. Okay.

It's okay. The antonym would be inefficient. So if you're diligent, the antonym would be inefficient. Other words would be squandering? Yeah.

Squandering. In my notes, says inefficient. They're both antonyms, careless, lazy, coasting, stumbling, stumbling through life. That's not diligent. There ten years ago, I wanted to climb the Grand, and it was a it was I feel like climbing the Grand sort of thing.

It wasn't a wise choice. You can be wise in how you do it, but I was this was just feeling it. So I put a note over at Lupin Meadows. Said, hey, if you want to go climb the Grand, call me and this guy from India was here to climb and he I shouldn't waste time telling the story but now I have to. His partner was sick and so we met at Dorning's and we talked about it and we got our equipment together and we hiked up, camped at the saddle, and then we kept going.

There's a storm that night. There's ice on the route. Look at the exposure. Like, this is a iPhone probably four or something, so it's not that great. Like, you could easily die.

One non diligent step, and you're like you're you're dead. Right? And I think blindness, days are evil, what's going on? What does Satan like to do? He likes for us to not think that that's our situation.

To be blind, to to not be children of light, to be partners with darkness, and we can just just slip. We give the devil a foothold. Boom. Oh, it's not that big of a deal. And I I was so convicted last week when Ray was talking about, you know, the crude joking and stuff and the the specific joke.

Like, I'm like, yeah. What am I doing? Like, that's a foothold, and he's helping us to recognize we shouldn't give that to Satan. We we need to see the dangers. And alright, so just to unpack making most of the time, there's that CSB.

There's a lot of different Bible translations. The word time is important to unpack. So kronos would be a Greek word for time. That's like, hey, what's the kronos? It's nine thirty eight.

Okay. That's not the same word. This is kairos, which is like more seasonal in nature. Sorry. I'm kind of sick today.

I almost I almost didn't get sick. I tried hard not to. Kairos is different. It's seasonal. This room gets seasonal more than anybody back home in Alabama.

Hey, it snowed a bunch. Like, it's time that the the conditions are perfect for action. What do we what's the action? Leave your job for the day. I'm sick.

I have to go shred powder. Like, that's the Kairos that we're taking advantage of. Or today, you know, the weather is supposed to be perfect conditions for first BBQ. We're going to set up a million tables and chairs and buy tons of food and and we're going to eat. It rained a little bit but hopefully, conditions are still perfect Or for mountain biking, whatever your thing is, right?

Like, we understand the conditions being perfect to take advantage, to take action. Alright. Now think about what is he saying, making the most of the time, making the most of the season. Christ has given us the opportunity to take advantage of the time. He has another translation says, purchase the he's telling us to purchase the time.

Jesus has redeemed us and has purchased us and has essentially purchased a season of life for us to live. If you're not a follower of Christ, I'm sorry. You're wasting your life. If you are a follower of Christ, you don't have to waste your life anymore. It's been redeemed.

And then also we live in this in between, like Jesus has rose from the grave. Right? And we live in this liminal season. We're talking about this in a small group, but liminal means it's just like in between time. From his ascension to when he returns.

This is a season. This is an opportunity for us to live. We don't know if he's coming back tomorrow. Right? We don't know how long like, life is a vapor.

Boom. But we right now are in a season where we can take advantage, take action of this perfect condition to know this is what the gospel is. Here's somebody that needs it or here's a brother in Christ or sister in Christ that's suffering and needs me to pray for him. I'm going to stop whatever the thing is, and I'm gonna take advantage of the time. Right?

There's another picture of, like, the shrewd merchant. Jesus has given us tons of talent or like spiritual money, right, and a money bag. And we're walking around and we see an opportunity. We purchase. Boom.

We take action. Boom. We speak truth. Boom. We get up in the morning.

We study the words, those in our minds so that we can take action when the perfect conditions arise. Everybody tracking with that? And it's similar to the parable of the talents when Jesus is talking about, don't just bury your talent. Hey, don't waste your life. Walk wisely.

Walk diligently, right? In 2021, we saw like record low interest rates, right? Thank God. I mean, I'm not a guru but we got to buy a house that year. It just happened.

We got back from overseas but a bunch of you or maybe not you but my neighbors back home, they were like, hey, I'm going to refinance my house and they refinanced. They jumped on this opportunity to refinance their house, keep their payment the same, and then they got like $80 out of their house for free, right? It's not for free. They paid for it somehow. But they took advantage of that season, and they jumped at the opportunity to purchase, and we should be looking for those opportunities.

Galatians six ten talks about take every opportunity to do good to one another. Right? Amen. Alright. And then the days are evil.

Temptation lurks around every corner. We've already kind of talked about this, and there's this inner battle between our spirit in us and our flesh. And when we let our flesh take control and we act on our feelings instead of in wisdom, then then we start slipping. I'm going to skip the priority walls analogy. Alright.

You can ask me about it later, though. Alright. So walk wisely, walk diligently, walk on course. Verse 17, so don't be foolish. He said, so because the days are evil, don't be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.

Oh, man. Now, it's messed up too, right? Walk on course. Don't be foolish so the negative is foolish. The antonym is to like not understanding or being off course to be lost.

So hopeless, ignorant, aimless, asleep or dead, misguided. So what's the Lord's will? That's another sermon. Right? What's the Lord's will?

Man, there's a lot in the Bible that directly says what the Lord's will is. And not knowing his will is foolishness. Sorry, this here, here we get this right. I keep messing with him. First Thessalonians four says, it says, the will of God is your sanctification and abstinence.

It's like it can't get any more clear. So, we know the will of God is our sanctification to look more and more like Jesus and our abstinence from the slide that we saw last week. Later in chapter five, he said, the will of God is to be thankful in all circumstances. We're going to get on that in the next slide. First Peter four, the will of God is to live for the rest of time in the flesh.

So, we have to live in the flesh but no longer for human passions like we were talking about that battle between the spirit and the flesh. And Romans 12 says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. These are like, this is like, what is the will of God? T ball verses.

It's like very clear, very clear. Colossians one nine through 10 says, we are praying that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will. So there's prayer involved in understanding God's will. In all wisdom, again, we just talked about wisdom and spiritual understanding. So as to walk or to live in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, pleasing to God, like that's what we want, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God and I think we hit on this before in John 15 when Jesus is talking about abide in me, abide in the vine in in the vine, we are the branches.

He says, my father is glorified by this that you produce much fruit. So we know that bearing fruit is part of the will of God for us. And then Matthew 28, right before Jesus ascends, he gives a command. So in my mind, anything Jesus commands is probably like the will of God for us. Right?

We can agree with that. Jesus commands us, followers of Christ, his disciples, to go therefore and make disciples of all nations. And and then he says what? He says, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Does that mean we shouldn't baptize our local brothers and sisters?

No. But we should all take part somehow in the nations. We have a missions committee here. I didn't know if you knew that. And all of you are giving so much.

Like, I think I calculated right. Like 14% of our whole budget is going to global missions. That's yes. That's not normal. Like, at best, I think average is is somewhere in this range of five to 15 and but they split that down the half down the middle and half is going to local and half is but I'm pretty sure that all 14% of what I said is is to global missions and the missions committee is very intentional about where that money goes and and and getting to know these these missionaries and who they are and what they're doing, what their mission is, how does their goal and their theology align with what we believe.

Right? It's if you want to be a part of that, get with me, get with the office, like we want to help you get plugged in to obey this command. Knowing His will helps us to walk in the light. So walk wisely, walk diligently, walk on course, and then be filled with the spirit. That's the rest of the of the whole thing.

And don't get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living. That's the third negative positive. But be filled by the spirit. Speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing, and making music with your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for everything to God the father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. So, the main verb there is filled, and I'm trying to be nerdy like Ray.

He's got this going on. What's the continual perfect verb? Present. Present active. Yeah.

That's what it is. When you're saved, you're filled. You're right then, you're filled with the spirit. But he says You're being filled. You're being filled.

Yeah. But he he said, so you're filled, but be filled. It's like both. So you you're filled with the spirit when you're saved, and then there's a constant being filled, being asking to be filled, praying for fullness. So then he's got five supporting participles.

Yeah? Yes. I like having you here. This is good. Speaking and singing and making music, giving thanks, submitting to one another.

Another one says, making noise, maybe, making music. Alright. Keep going. So, don't get drunk with wine which leads to reckless living but be filled by the spirit. This picture, I know we got to see a baptism this morning.

So awesome. Right? This is this is amazing. Another baptism. This I got to be baptized with this brother in on January twelve twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, and he was a a Muslim background believer, and he would describe Islam is like, it only goes so it it it doesn't penetrate who you are.

It's like a shell of a of a religion. Okay? So he's been doing all these things and then and then he meets he has an encounter with Jesus and he describes it as it it penetrated who he was, and it totally changed his life. He's from Northern Sudan. And in that moment, I've never taken a picture that that you can almost see the spirit in there, like in him.

And he's still preaching God's word today. So, comparing contrast, and we're going to get more into that. But to compare and contrast, I thought this was interesting. The negative and positive. So, drunkenness versus being filled with the spirit.

One brings or they're both similar and that they both take control of you in different ways, right? Unfortunately, that's true with drunkenness but it's fortunately true with the spirit. One brings temporary change, Right? One brings eternal change. One brings confusion.

One brings clarity. One waste your life totally, leads to reckless living, and one transforms your life for good. One brings regret in the morning, more wastefulness, and one brings new mercies in the morning and understanding and wisdom and all these beautiful things. But for some reason, sometimes we are confused in in which way to go. Hey, this slide looks good.

Be filled with the spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart to the Lord. But what if I'm not good at singing? Like I think that was you know disgust when they hired me like man can't really sing. So I don't know how it's going to go. It's true, I can't.

Is that a problem if we're called, if he's saying to sing to one another psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Piper and all of us were doing chores this week our house and they were like, I hate chores. I hate cleaning. This is miserable. And I started singing.

Was like, take out the dishes to the water. Take out the trash, sweep the floor. That's my singing? I know, it's horrible. But they thought it's great, and they start singing, and we're dancing and doing chores and all of a sudden our whole mentality shifts and at the end she said, You know what dad?

It's way more fun to do chores when we're singing and dancing and it goes by faster. I was like, Yeah, there's something to that. But so these verbs speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, and then singing and making music to the Lord, that's what we were doing this morning. When we worship together and we're singing together, we are addressing one another in truths. Some of these songs we sing, I wish I had a better memory because I'm as we're singing, I'm like, oh yeah, this is addressing one another.

The who we are in Christ, like we're standing on a firm foundation, and then some of the songs are more like worshiping who God is. Like, He is amazing God who created us and made a way for us to be with Him, and He's the alpha and all the things. Like there was one song, it was just listing out who God is. I can't remember the lyrics, but you do probably. So toward others and towards God, and in Psalm 95 says, Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving, and let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.

That's what I was thinking where it says noise. Right here, it says noise. That's more like where where I'm at. Okay. Next, giving thanks always.

This is the fourth part of syllable. Giving thanks always for everything to God the father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's a ton here. Okay. This is a genuine thankfulness.

This one was hard for me to wrap my mind around. At first, I thought one Thessalonians five eighteen where he calls us to be thankful in all circumstances. That's hard. But here he says to be thankful for all things, to be thankful for the good, to be thankful for the bad. How do you do that?

Like, I'm kind of a sarcastic person, and when somebody does something to me that's not cool, I'm like, thanks, man. But I'm not thankful. I'm being hypocritical. I'm not being truthful. So how do we do that?

And he says to God the father, because of Jesus, we can go to the father and we can trust his goodness, we can trust his power, and we can trust that our minds are fickle and his ways are so much greater than our ways. James one calls us to rejoice in our trials. I think it's parallel. That is impossible without understanding what we actually deserve. If we actually think about what we deserve, it really helps us to be thankful for for what is given to us, good or bad.

Ephesians one eleven talks about he works all things in agreement to the purpose of his will, and then Romans eight twenty eight is similar. He works all things for the good of those who love him. But how do we get there? That when I was preaching to the windshield this morning, this came to mind, it might have been last night, but I was thinking, you know, when I put my kids to bed and I pray over my wife at night, it's tough sometimes because I have a fear that's not true that they're going to be taken. And then I encourage myself, not in wisdom, but in feeling, encourage myself, oh, it'll be fine.

Like, my mom died when I was young, so no way my wife would die. Like, that's not how God works. Right? I don't need to have an expectation that I'm going to have this life of ease, a long life, and all my kids are going to live. I mean, but I also don't want to have a fear that one of them is going to be taken.

We have to trust that we are His and He is good. Didn't mean to get emotional. Alright. Last one, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. At first, I wrote reverence.

ESV translates the word reverence. Reverence is close. Fear the the word is phobos. So we know that that means fear. What in the world does that mean?

First, we'll talk about submitting to one another. So, it takes humility. We're called to count others more significant than ourselves. We we submit ourselves to Jesus, right? Jesus doesn't submit to our will but in a way, he positions himself as a servant for us.

He totally presents himself as a servant by putting himself under. He submitted to the father's will by coming here to earth and being close to us nasty, stinky human beings and lived a perfect life with us. Right? And then He chose to be obedient to the Father's will to go to the cross. And He hung there, submitting Himself under as a servant for us to take on the wrath of God.

And in that moment, experiencing horror, not just physically, but horrific separation on the cross just in that moment from the Father as He takes on as our servant, which is mind blowing, our sin, the payment for our sin. That's remember the will of God is our sanctification, being more like Christ. That's the model. Like, this looks really pretty, but it's super gruesome and deathly. Right?

Yes. If if so why do we have a hard time with the word submit? It says submitting to one another. I'm not even talking about verse 22. It says submitting to one another.

We have to take the pride out and remember whose we are and what our goal is in this life. We want to submit others and serve them and remember to take advantage of that season if someone's having a difficult time or someone needs an encouraging word. But then the fear of Christ, what what does that mean? In Matthew 10, Jesus is saying, don't fear those who can only kill your body. Who do we fear?

God, who can who can who can destroy both body and soul? Fear not, you are more than sparrows. Oh, okay. So we've got both and. Fear, don't fear.

Matthew 25, the women go into the tomb. Right? They see an angel. The tomb's empty. It's powerful, it's wild, and they walk away in fear and joy.

To be a Christian involves knowing how both of these fit together. In Acts five, Ananias and Sapphire, remember they had a land sale and they lied about it and God struck them and killed them. That's fearful. The great fear fell on the whole church. But then in Acts nine, the whole church had peace being built up, walking in the fear of the Lord and comfort of the Holy Spirit.

This is a piper John Piper analogy. God is like a blazing fireball, Okay? And we're like a tiny little twig. And we can either run away or ignore him or run to him. That's fearful.

Right? But all terror is removed and sweetness remains. And remember that earlier slide that the fear of Christ is the beginning of wisdom. Like, it all fits together. The wisdom, walking carefully, fearing God, taking every opportunity to let the spirit work in us to serve and love God and others.

Here's a sermon in a sentence right here. May we all carefully walk through this life in wisdom, diligently in the direction of God's will with the reliance on the fullness of the spirit to worship together and humbly serve others in the fear of the Lord. I left that part out. I'll invite the band to come up. We'll pray.

Lord, thank you so much for today. Thank you for your word. Help us to understand it. Help us to be impacted by your word and to make wise choices to be careful and diligent in our steps lord. We love you.

In Jesus name, amen.